Eat Naughty, Feel Great and Eating Healthy

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Throw away your tickets to the guilt trip

tim-tams-open-packages

eating healthy and tim tams

I know there are many times when I’m trying to make positive behaviour changes to my eating healthy and exercise habits, I’m constantly been tempted by your favourite ‘poor food’ or ‘treat’. One of my favourite foods are tim tams by the way.

Knowing you must stay on the ‘straight and narrow’ to reach your goals I tend to force myself not to eat these foods for days or even months. But then, something happens which always seems to make me lose control and I succumb to the temptation demons and eat a little bit…

This tends to make me feel so guilty that I decide I may as well have some more… I think to myself well ‘well I’ve already gone off the wagon so what’s the point?’ Then before you know it I feel like a failure for slipping up, and find myself tearing into mouthful after mouthful . Stricken with guilt, then I decide to hammer myself in the gym for hours… and then the cycle continues over the next week…

I have a feeling I’m not alone in completing this vicious cycle on a regular basis. Does this sound familiar to you?

When everything in our lives is going smoothly, it’s easier to stick to our nutrition plans and avoid temptation, but when the going gets tough and there’s different stresses and other priorities coming to the fore, we’re more likely to give into our sugar cravings. Stress, anxiety or unexpected events such as work, sick family members, emotional encounters or who knows, even things like traffic jams and stubbing your toe – can all contribute to a lapse in positive
behaviour changes. But the guilt you feel and the punishment you inflict on yourself from one small indulgence keeps you ‘trapped’ in this vicious cycle of not eating healthy. You end up feeling constantly miserable and deflated; it all feels like too much hard work and the cycle ultimately and unfortunately can cause you to give up on your goals.

This does not have to be the case: to break this cycle, you simply need to admit that it’s okay to indulge once in a while.  Yes, that’s right, accept that from time to time, you will give into
your temptations – but instead of feeling guilty, enjoy it… enjoy every single millisecond and let go of the guilt!! Let yourself know that it’s okay to have the treat and get back to eating healthy. If you are constantly in a state of denial and restriction it will make the treat seem so much more desirable. Instead of saying ‘I can’t eat that’ or ‘I’m not allowed to eat it’, say to yourself ‘I choose not to eat this’. You are then in control.

Now I’m not saying you should allow yourself a ‘treat’ every single day just to feel happy and emotionally balanced; more so, you need to accept that making positive behaviour changes takes consistent effort over time. Since some habits may have been built up throughout your
entire life, there’s no denying there will be a few that will be difficult to control or eliminate completely, it just takes a bit of patience and will power.

The important thing to remember is that a lapse in positive behaviour is completely normal. However, once you’ve made a decision to change, don’t let your emotions or any lapses send you way off track. It’s okay if you encounter some speed bumps along the way, just don’t veer off the track.

When you can release yourself from the guilt you can potentially attach to these lapses in discipline and begin focusing more on your strengths, it will become easier to stop at the portion you’ve allowed yourself and without further ado get straight back into your balanced
eating and exercise habits.

This ‘No Guilt Zone’ allows you to get off the emotional rollercoaster that is denial and gorging and stay ‘put’ on the path to achieving your goals. Seeking the support of your family and friends will also help ensure that you don’t go over the designated portion size you
originally set for yourself.

By jumping straight back into your routine, your new behaviours will become more and more ingrained and soon you will be encountering less and less speed bumps. Simply acknowledge your craving and decide what you’re going to do about it. Remind yourself of your goals often and whatever you decide, ensure you take control of the situation and
don’t let your emotions control you.

To speak with a gold coast personal trainer click this link personaltrainingrunawaybay.com

A Girl’s Best Friend is Not Cellulite

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Cellulite – something that no woman wants to see on the back of her thighs or butt in her best bikini. Why do supermodels like Victoria’s Secret Angel, Adriana Lima or even you’re average gym junkie neighbour don’t show the signs of cellulite is something every woman wants to know. To get rid of cellulite, we first must understand what is it.

Cellulite (other than being the worst nightmare of every woman) is a persistent fat that causes dimpling under the skin especially in the areas of the hips, thighs and buttocks. About 90% of women show signs of cellulite, so don’t be embarrassed ladies you’re not the only one! Since it is fat, it should be able to be lost through proper eating and exercise. Except with cellulite, it’s a little different to normal fat. Cellulite is different because it is hardened un-metabolized fat, water and trapped wastes under the skin (this gives the dimpled appearance).

To remove cellulite from the body the best way is clean eating and regular exercise. Creating a regular routine around your work and personal life will be the most effective way to fit in those sweaty sessions. Your action plan to remove that stubborn cellulite is to eat cruciferous vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables? ‘What are they?’ These vegetables are Cauliflower, Cabbage, Watercress, Bok Choy, Broccoli and similar green leafy vegetables. These veggies are high in lecithin, which helps repair tissue damage in the skin cells. Also having a clean diet is essential to remove those lumps and bumps from the behind. When it comes to clean eating, we ladies have to remember the essential 8 tips to achieve or keep those ultimate bikini bodies all year round.

  1. Commit to a 100% clean eating diet.
  2. Cut out all processed foods.
  3. Stay away from white flour
  4. Cut out refined sugar and salts
  5. Keep up your healthy fats such as avocado, nuts and oils
  6. Track your meals
  7. Adding lean protein
  8. Always drink water

Clean eating always has a buddy and it is called regular exercise! Exercising regularly is great for your body to remove fat, keep muscle tone and creating a positive and happy attitude. There are lots of exercises that can tone and reduce the amount of fat in the thighs, butt and hips. To focus on reducing the symptoms of cellulite you have to target the areas of concern. Doing exercises such as a variety of squats, lunges, dead lifts etc.

By following these simple tips you should have sexy-cellulite-free legs, hips and butts all year round. Remember ladies keep up your regular exercise between your work and personal life and eat clean.

To learn how you can live a cellulite free lifestyle contact your Runaway Bay Personal Trainer

How to Get Your Fitness Back After Pregnancy

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post-pregnancy-belly
Many women understandably worry about getting their body back into tip-top shape after having giving birth to a new-born baby. However, when you combine this with the pressures and stresses that come with being a mum, it can become particularly challenging to get that pre-baby body back. It’s important to remember that getting back into shape isn’t something you can rush. Remember, it’s taken about 40 weeks for you to gain the extra body fat that comes with pregnancy and your body has done the amazing job of growing your baby and bringing it into the world, so naturally you need some to recover.

Before you get back into the swing of exercise again, it is important to get the okay from your doctor and the time that you need to wait before starting again can vary between 6 to 12 weeks. This largely depends on whether you have had a natural birth or caesarean. With a new baby to look after, finding the time to do a few sets in the gym can be tough, but not impossible, as long as you are prepared to make it a priority and remember to follow a healthy eating plan. These will also be hugely beneficial as your baby grows up with the same habits
from an early stage in their life.

The specific focus for new mums should be to strengthen and tighten the muscles that have been stretched out during their pregnancy and childbirth. These are the muscles in the abdominals and pelvic floor. It’s usually best to start easy and gradually increase the intensity
as you go along. Try starting out with some gentle tightening exercises for these areas simply by sucking in and contracting the muscles, while keeping a deep, breathing rhythm going throughout the contraction. You must ensure that you avoid any kind of crunch exercise for the first 6 weeks whilst the muscles repair and focus more on these stabilising exercises. When you strengthen your pelvic floor, you will help to prevent any urine leaks while you’re
exercising.

Each day, make a goal to try and complete a short walk, it can be a good opportunity to help introduce your baby to the world via a stroller. Walking will increase your circulation and give your body another type of gentle workout, similar to the stabilising pelvic floor and abdominal exercises mentioned earlier. Being out and about with your baby can improve your mood as well as your fitness. Two birds, one stone. Have a go at starting off with short 10 to 15 minute
walks, then attempt to build up to about an hour of walking at a steady, consistent pace. If you can do this at least four days a week, you will be well on your way to that amazing pre-baby body.

Focus on swinging your arms and legs in a more exaggerated way than you usually would, it will make your heart beat faster. Try to push yourself to get a little out of breath, but not losing so much so that you can’t hold a conversation. See if you can find a local new mums
group or grab a friend to walk with – this will help to stay accountable to your exercise program and keep the routine from getting to monotonous.

Remember, that if you’re breastfeeding, always exercise after feeding your baby or express before you exercise. Exercising with full breasts can be quite uncomfortable. It can be a great idea to wear a sports bra over your maternity bra for extra support. New mum’s who are breast feeding should realise that performing high intensity exercise can cause a lactic acid build in the body, which ultimately alter the taste of the breast milk and therefore receptivity of the baby. You can relax, no harm will be caused to the baby though and is it advised to stay with a low to moderate level of exercise intensity. In summary, below the anaerobic threshold, as this will not have any impact on taste or receptivity of breast milk to the baby.

How the People Around You can Influence your Health

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How many times have you said to yourself; ‘I am going to start eating better and not eat sweet foods after dinner’ I’ve said that exact quote to myself countless times. Then you get home after a long day, eat your dinner and meander off to the couch to watch your favourite TV show. You’re proud that you have used some Mr Miyagi-like discipline and not had dessert. Moments later however, your partner plonks themselves down next to you with a bowl of your favourite sweet un healthy food. At that point your mental resolve is put to the test. Unless you are extremely determined to reach your goal and / or amazing will power, the chances of you not tucking into those sweets is very low. This is only amplified when your partner encourages you to join them in eating that food. This has happened to me countless times.

Often people ask me ‘Why would someone’s partner actually encourage them to eat poorly, knowing they are attempting to lead a healthy lifestyle?’. My response to that usually startles them. I believe that it comes down to the emotions – love, fear or guilt. When one half of a relationship attempts to improve a part of their life, unfortunately many times the other half of the relationship will attempt to sabotage their efforts in fear of losing them, especially if they are not on a similar road to self improvement. Unfortunately this is often the case.

Believe it or not, this fear is driven by love; that is the fear of losing their love if their partner develops into a person that may either attract or be attracted to a more positive person. This can be terrifying for people. Some other people attempt to sabotage their partner’s efforts to help themselves feel better. Saying things like ‘Come on have some with me’ only serves to make them feel better about eating something that they know is wrong.

Situations like those described above are quite a challenge for someone to confront. What if you trained like a crazed banshee for an hour a day, six days a week. That’s awesome, well done. However, this still only represents less than 4% of your life. The general consensus is that your ability to lose weight is 70% related to eating, which leaves just 30% related to exercise. It’s really what you do away from the gym that will get you the results of your dreams. Therefore, you need to ensure that you not only understand what to eat and how to maximise your recovery, but most importantly understand what influences you to eat certain foods and exercise.

Research on this topic has found that for many people, their poor food habits are largely influenced by the food choices of the people around them. This supports the theory that we are all a product of the people that we spend the most time with. These people are commonly known as your ‘Circle of Influence’.

It’s clear that on the TV show ‘The Biggest Loser,’ one’s ‘Circle of Influence’ has an enormous impact on the results the contestants achieve. Prior to entering the house, each contestant’s circle of influence obviously negatively impacted their ability to eat the rights foods and frequently exercise. However, when they enter the house, their circle of influence improves dramatically. Not only are they encouraged by people with similar goals to eat well and exercise, they had fantastic Trainers providing them with the education and accountability to succeed. Unfortunately, when they return to their normal everyday lives they return to their more negative circle of influence and often they end up going backwards on their journey and
pile the pounds back on. This highlights the importance of ensuring that people who wish to lead a healthy lifestyle are encouraged and supported throughout their journey by those closest to them.

Therefore, to improve your circle of influence, seek out positive people who are on a similar journey to you. Hire a personal trainer, join a sporting club, make an effort to spend time with people you know who are going through a similar journey to you and include those around you in your journey as well. You might be surprised at how much your loved ones will enjoy going on this journey with you and you may even be able to influence them to change their lives for the better.

Being a runaway bay personal trainer, I often see some of my clients struggle to achieve their goals until their partner starts training and eating well with them. Many of my clients who have their partner cook for them, struggle to achieve their goals if their partner is not prepared to serve healthy foods. After all, having to prepare 2 different meals (or more if you have kids) is a waste of time! However, once their partner starts training and is motivated to eat well, they never have to prepare multiple meals again, as they are now only preparing healthy ones.

This seems like a great segway to a massive problem, childhood obesity. I believe the best way to combat this epidemic is to educate and influence the parents all over the world. There’s something great that happens when parents are educated about healthy food habits. I
have personally seen children turn their young lives around for the better as a direct result of their parent’s new found attitude to healthy living. Unfortunately, I have seen unhealthy parents actually take away a child’s opportunity to exercise as a means of punishment if they do wrong. This once again highlights the impact of one’s circle of influence.

In summary, I would encourage you to share your goals with your family and friends. That is, make your goals public so that those people around you understand and support what you are trying to achieve. They will help keep you accountable to doing the little things even when
you don’t feel like them. Consider who you are with and / or influencing you during your ‘danger times’ when you tend to eat the wrong foods.

Everyone has certain times when they are prone to making poor food choices. Even if those people are not interested in exercise they should be encouraged to learn about healthy eating habits and hopefully the extra education will rub off on everyone around them. As
the old saying goes; ‘’It’s hard to soar like an eagle if your surrounded by turkeys.’’

The Childhood Obesity Epidemic – What Can You Do?

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Obesity is more drastic than just being a little flabby. It is a serious medical condition, which like all serious conditions can be completely debilitating and lead to an early grave. Too many people these days believe that becoming overweight and even worse, obese, is normal. People are becoming accustomed and seem hardened to the fact that this is in fact an incapacitating, potentially fatal disease which is not just a usual part of life.

A survey in 2009 performed by the NSW Population Health showed that 52.5%, that’s right, over half of the population, was classified as overweight or obese. It also showed that rates of childhood obesity were rising at a consistent rate.

Data collected from the NSW Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey of 2004 showed that 25% of boys and 23.3% of girls in NSW were either overweight or obese. This percentage is estimated to be much higher now.

Childhood obesity is a serious concern. Obese children have a greatly increased chance of becoming obese in their adult lives as well – and those suffering from lifetime obesity have an increased chance of an early death compared to those who become obese later on in their life.

If you have a child who you think could possibly be obese, it is very important that you get them checked by your Doctor who will be able to tell you officially if your child is overweight or obese, and they can then give you some advice to pass onto your child. It’s obviously quite a sensitive subject, especially if you’re worried about a child that isn’t yours, either friend’s or sibling’s child – however, a simple Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator can help determine whether a child fits into the overweight or obese category.

Forward this link to the parent of the child you’re concerned about and get them to fill in their child’s stats. It’s a sensitive subject but one definitely worth bringing up.

If it’s your own body weight you’re worried about, just remember, it’s never too late to try and make a change. Remember what Confuscious says; ‘’The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’’

If you are concerned about your child’s wellbeing, a runaway bay personal trainer may be your solution.  Call the team today for a no pressure consultation to determine a fit and healthy path for you little one.

Improve self esteem, confidence, fitness, health, attentiveness, alertness, retention and see your new happy loving child in a new light

PersonalTrainingRunawayBay.com specializes in body shape improvement